Ammon man arrested after being found in backseat of a pick-up with teenage boy
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SHELLEY — A 41-year-old man faces two felony lewd conduct charges after a teen told police he met up with the man so they could perform sexual acts on each other.
Derick R. Peterson, of Ammon, was arrested June 1 in Bingham County after a Shelley police officer found him and a 16-year-old boy in the backseat of a pick-up truck. He is being held in the Bingham County Jail on a $100,000 bond.
Police reports show that around 10:30 p.m., a Shelley police officer investigated two trucks parked in a dental office parking lot on the 200 block of Anderson Road.
The officer said steamy windows on one truck drew his attention after he found the other truck empty.
“I noticed there were two subjects that were moving around in the backseat,” the officer wrote in his report. “I walked to the side backdoor. A male adult opened the door. I observed a juvenile subject in the backseat with him.”
The man identified himself as Peterson. The officer said he observed Peterson was sexually aroused.
When asked what Peterson was doing in the backseat, he allegedly told the officer the teen was his son and they were “just talking.”
Reluctant to get Peterson “in trouble,” the teen originally told the officer Peterson was his father, but later confessed the two were “messing around.”
According to police reports, the teen told the officer he and Peterson were touching each other in the backseat, but the teen said it was consensual and admitted that it was the second time the two met up for a sexual encounter.
Peterson told police he thought the teen was 18. Police confronted Peterson with that statement as the teen appeared to be 13 to 14 years old, according to police. Peterson maintained he thought the teen was 18.
A no-contact order was ordered, and a preliminary hearing was held Thursday. An arraignment in district court had not been scheduled as of Wednesday afternoon.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article confused the gender of the police officer based on information in court documents. That has been corrected. EastIdahoNews.com apologies for the error.